VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES
----------------------------

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

A STUDY ON THE USE OF VISUAL AIDS IN TEACHING
ENGLISH VOCABULARY FOR 3rd GRADE STUDENTS
Nghiên cứu về việc sử dụng giáo cụ trực quan
trong việc dạy từ vựng tiếng Anh cho học sinh lớp 3

Supervisor: Dr. Ha Cam Tam
Student: Tran Thi Nhung
Code: 14045084
Training code: 60140111
Date of birth: 02/26/1981
Class: K23C
Hanoi, 2018


A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

DECLARATION

I certify that no part of the report has been copied or reproduced by me from
any other person‟s work without acknowledgement and that the report is originally

students from two primary schools, helping me doing the research.
Last but not least, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my family for
their encouragement and great support during my time of fulfilling this thesis.

ii


A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

ABSTRACT
This study was implemented to find the impacts of using visual aids in
teaching English Vocabulary for the third grade students.
The method the researcher used to study is Action Research (AR). Firstly,
the result of the study proved that using visual aids in teaching improved third grade
students‟ vocabulary mastery in listening, understanding, speaking and writing.
However, it was found that in the second intervention the students‟ improvement
was often in Part 1 of the test – Listening and number/choose. Secondly, the
findings revealed that visual aids help students improved their listening and
understanding more than speaking and writing. Thirdly, the students‟ interest in
learning English was improved during the process of using visual aids in teaching
vocabulary.
The result of the study was concluded that using visual aids in teaching
English Vocabulary can improve students‟ vocabulary mastery and their interest in
learning English.

iii

3. Action Research ....................................................................................................10
4. Characteristics of young students .........................................................................12
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY .........................................................................15
1. Setting of the study................................................................................................15
2. Participants ............................................................................................................16
3. Steps of action research .........................................................................................16
4. Schedule of implementing the action ....................................................................17

iv


A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

5. Research instruments ............................................................................................17
5.1. Planning the action .............................................................................................18
5.2. Implementing the actions ...................................................................................19
5.3. Observing the action ..........................................................................................26
CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS ........................................27
1. Data analysis procedure ........................................................................................27
2. Findings .................................................................................................................28
2.1. Tests ...................................................................................................................28
2.2. Observation ........................................................................................................31
PART C: CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................................35
1. Summary of the study ...........................................................................................35
2. Some limitations of the study................................................................................36
3. Suggestions for practicing teachers .......................................................................37

number of people learning and using English has been increased dramatically.
English is being introduced to ever more and younger children. In which, there are
children at kindergarten. And, English is now one of the compulsory subjects in
primary education in many countries around the world.
The researcher has opportunities to work with students from some primary
schools. Most of them are in third grade level; learn English from first grade level.
It means they have learnt two English books: one in first grade level and the other in
second grade level. However, when working with them, the author found some
problems: the students don‟t remember much the vocabulary which they have learnt
before; they can hardly write any English words, most of them pronounce the
vocabulary incorrectly,

they seem boring when talking about English.

Acknowledging the importance of learning English vocabulary and the students‟
problems in learning English, the researcher would like to find an effective and
appropriate strategy to improve students‟ vocabulary retention and their interest in
learning English. The researcher has looked over the list of the major themes in
1


A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

education in the book, published in 2009 and entitled „English Language Teaching
(Major Themes in Education)‟, edited by Patricia Hedge, University of Warwick,
UK, Nick Andon and Martin Dewey, all at Kings College, University of London,

in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

The second part - Development consisted of three chapters:
- Chapter 1 is literature review which discussed the theoretical background of the
thesis, relating to the key terms: vocabulary, visual aids, action research, and
characteristics of young students.
- Chapter 2 is methodology, which discussed the setting of the study, participants,
steps of action research, schedule of implementing the action, and research
instruments used in the study.
- Chapter 3 deals with data analysis and the findings
The last part - Conclusion is devoted to the summary and some limitations of
the study. This chapter also provides some suggestions for further study. The
conclusion will put an end to this part.
References will be in the end.

3


A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Vocabulary

build Student's Vocabulary, focusing on developing word awareness and love of
words through word play; developing explicit, rich instruction to build vocabulary;
building strategies for independence; engage students actively with a wide range of
books. In addition, there are so many other ways of enhancing word memorization;
multiple exposure to words (Baker,Simmons&Kameenui www); activating words
through use (Stevick in Nunan 1998:133); comparing new with known words
(Brewster,Ellis&Girard 1991:90); suggestions to support retention and recall.
This study focuses on teaching the young learners, the third grade students.
Thus, the methodology of teaching vocabulary is far different from that of the adult
ones and the teacher should firstly acknowledge the fact that the ability to master
vocabulary of students in the third grade is still in the level of receptive use. They
are able to identify the words when they meet them but they are not able to produce
or use the words speaking or writing. Lado (1979: 121-126) gives some steps in
vocabulary learning, namely: (1) listening the words, (2) pronouncing the words, (3)
understanding the meaning, (4) making illustration in the form of sentence, (5)
doing practice in expressing the meaning, (6) pronouncing the words in loud voice,
and (7) spelling the words. Based on this theory, the third grade students are able to

6


A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

master vocabulary in listening the words, pronouncing the words and spelling the
words.
Along with the knowledge of the ability to master vocabulary of students in the

items to be taught for young learners.
Last but not least, teaching vocabulary for grade-schoolers will be more
effective with meaningful activities to practice vocabulary, which help learners
memorize words much better than practice orally or listen to them purely. To meet

7


A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

the needs, the meaningful activities should involve as many senses as possible
including hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and feeling.
2. Visual Aids
2.1.

Definitions

The aids which use the sense of vision are called visual aids. In the context
of teaching, visual-aids are items that are designed (most by teachers) to support
written or spoken information so that it can be understood more easily. Visual aids
include teacher‟s gestures, facial features, and movements, real objects, models,
pictures, posters, postcards, flashcards, word calendars, chart, picture books, text
books, e-books, slides, graphs, images, black/white-board, maps, etc. They are all
the means by which teachers bring life into the theoretical texts by bringing
environment inside the classroom indirectly with the purpose of relating teaching
with the environment that students live and communicate with. Those kinds of

photo dictionaries to increase the vocabulary and speaking skills of learners.
Charts, maps and diagrams are other common visual tools used for learning
purposes. Kleinman and Dwyer (1999) examined the effects of specific visual skills
in facilitating learning. Their findings indicate that the use of color graphics in
instructional modules as opposed to black and white graphics promotes better
achievement in the learning of concepts. An earlier study by Myatt and Carter (as
cited in Heinich et al, 1999) suggests that most learners prefer color visuals to black
and white visuals, but that no significant difference in the amount of learning occurs
except when color is related to the content to be learned.
Due to the frame work of the study and the limitation of time, the researcher
would like to apply some kinds of visual aids in the process of implementing the
action research including flashcards, photo, audio, computer slides...
Calder (1966), cited in Girma (1983), states that psychologists have found
that 84% of what we learn we get from seeing; 13% of what we learn we get from
hearing; and only 3% we learn in other ways. This implies that most of what we
learn we get through visual medium. In the context of teaching English, especially
teaching vocabulary for grade-schoolers, who are too young and their vocabulary in
still in the level receptive use, visual aids can be good resources for teaching
vocabulary. It is always helpful to show the objects to the students with the words
so that they can have a better understanding of the objects and their meanings. It
helps them to recall the words easily. If the learners only hear a new word meaning
orally, it may not be remembered for long time. However, if the vocabularies are
presented with the pictures, it becomes more effective. Moreover, visual aids help
the teacher to give emphasis on what is being taught and presented. Clear visual
aids multiply the learners‟ ability of comprehension.
According to Allen, Kate & Marquez (2011), “Visual aids impact and add
interest to a presentation. They can create excitement. Visual aids enable students to
9



variation and provide the classroom change-of-pace, which is essential to maintain
students‟ high level of interest. They go beyond the limitation of the school and
home environment of the students and allow discussion of a wide variety of
situations and circumstances. Visual aids help teachers present clearly and
smoothly, without complications so that their students can understand and
remember concepts more easily.
3. Action Research

10


A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

Action Research is a formative study of progress commonly practiced by
teachers in schools. Basically an action research is a spiral process that includes
problem investigation, taking action & fact-finding about the result of action. It
enables a teacher to adopt/craft most appropriate strategy within its own teaching
environment. Action research is a popular research method in the current
development of society. Many well-known scholars have a number of different
ideas regarding the action research.
According to Nunan, D. (1992, p.18), action research is “a descriptive case
study of a particular classroom, groups of learners or even a single learner counts as
action research if it is initiated by a question, is supported by data and
interpretation, and is carried out by a practitioner investigating aspects of his or her
own context and situations”. This definition shows that in order to carry out an
action research, the teacher must be a practitioner who must identify the problem

identified and investigated where the action is: at the classroom and school level.
By integrating research into these settings and engaging those who work at this
level in research activities, findings can be applied immediately and problems
solved more quickly” (Guskey, 2000).
The researcher has chosen this method to conduct her study because it is a
formative study of progress commonly practiced by teachers who want to improve
their teaching as well as their students‟ learning outcomes. Also, the researcher
finds this model suitable for her individual action research because it involves
working independently on a project, as a primary school teacher, conducting her
own in-class research project with her students.
The researcher has followed the model of Action Research of Kemmis and
Mc Taggart (1988) which is composed of four phases:
-

Planning: a problem or issue is identified and a plan of action is developed in
order to bring about improvements in specific areas of the research context.

-

Action: the plan is to put into action over an agree period of time.

-

Observation: the effects of the action are observed and data are collected.

-

Reflection: the effects of the action are evaluated become the basis for
further cycles of research.


Young learner‟s sensory perception is holistic; they don‟t often go into
details. They also have a holistic approach to language, which means that they
understand meaningful messages but cannot analyze language. It is preferable to
help young learners to memorize single words or whole chunks rather than go into
detailed descriptions of structures. Teaching chunks of language in context may be a
great idea. Children are already very good in interpreting meaning without
necessarily understanding the individual word. They have limited reading and
writing skills even in their first language. It is useless to teach them grammar since
they still struggle with grammar in their mother tongue. Teacher should focus on
fluency rather on accuracy. Their sense is in association with feeling, seeing,
touching, hearing, interacting and other practical activities. They need concrete
experiences in order to understand. Their sense and assessment of time and space
are still limited. Their sense does not develop by itself, it need teacher‟s instruction.
13


A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

Young learner‟s thought is concrete, formulaic concerned with real objects,
visual things and situation, peripheral rather than focal attention whose reference is
observable in immediate environment. They cannot comprehend abstract ideas, so
go for concrete examples, practical instances of language in use to be able to
understand them and reproduce them. Children need physical movements and real
activities to stimulate their thinking. Their problem solving skills are
underdeveloped, simple, and not deep. They have difficulties in observing
regularities and causal relations. Young learners‟ imagination is patchy, simple,

Young learners‟ teachers need to understand the above characteristics of
children because it will influence many aspects in teaching English for young
learners in order to have effective teaching such as teaching style, methods, learning
materials, lesson plan, and the way of getting along with them. One of the common
principles is the funny, interesting and natural learning environment because young
learners‟ world is associated with games, visual phenomenon, having fun. From this
principle a language teacher may develop his or her own techniques with suitable
activities to make their learning funny and natural.

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
The study was conducted as an action research depending on the model of
Kemmis and Mc Taggart (1988) which is composed of four phases:
-

Planning: a problem or issue is identified and a plan of action is developed in
order to bring about improvements in specific areas of the research context.

-

Action: the plan is to put into action over 2 month period of time.

-

Observation: the effects of the action are observed and data are collected.

-

Reflection: the effects of the action are evaluated become the basis for
further cycles of research.
This chapter discussed the setting of the study, participants, steps of action

English in grade 1 and 2, it is not a compulsory subject and it is based on the spirit
of their parents‟ voluntary agreement. The textbooks of the two primary schools are
the same. Their titles are “UK English Program”: book 1 for the first grade and
book 2 for the second grade. Because English is not a compulsory subject for them
at their primary schools, it is not taken care of as Math and Vietnamese. Both
teachers and parents considered it the period for them to get familiar with a new
language. All the knowledge they need to get familiar with are listening and
speaking simple words relating to things around such as colors, food, drinks. The
researcher chooses them as the subjects of the study because they remember little
vocabulary or even hardly remember any vocabulary.
3. Steps of action research
The researcher based on the four phrase model of Kemmis and Mc Taggart
(1988) including (1) Planning the action, (2) Implementing the action, (3)
Observing the action, (4) Reflecting the action. The detail of each step is as
following:
Steps

Objectives

of the Study

2 Interventions

Planning

Intervention 1: no visual aids in teaching vocabulary for students
Implementation

Intervention 2: Using visual aids in teaching vocabulary for students


1

September 6th, 2017

Lesson 1

Mini test 1

2

September 13th, 2017

Lesson 2

Mini test 2

3

September 20th, 2017

Lesson 3

Mini test 3

4

September 27th, 2017

Final Test 1


5. Research instruments
To collect the data, 2 following instruments were applied (1) testing and (2)
observation.
(1) Testing: There are 3 mini-tests and 1 post-test in each intervention: The aim
of the mini-tests is to assess students‟ short term memory. Thus, each mini-test is
conducted right after the lesson; the content of mini-test is included in the content of
the lesson only. And the aim of the post-test is to assess their long term memory.
Thus, each post-test is conducted one week after the intervention ended; the content
of post-test is included in the content of whole intervention.
(2) Observation: There are 6 observation sheets for 6 sessions, three sheets for
intervention 1 and three sheets for intervention 2. In each observation sheets, there

17


A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

are 11 criteria relating to students‟ interest in learning English. The aim of the
observation sheets is to assess their interest in learning English.
5.1. Planning the action
Two interventions were planned to teach vocabulary for the third grade
students. The first intervention was planned to teach vocabulary without visual aids
in three weeks with three topics including animals, shapes and drinks. After each
session, there was a mini-test and at the end of the intervention, there was a posttest. It was planned as following:
INTERVENTION 1: NO VISUAL AIDS
No


Drinks

Sentences: What drink is it?

=>It‟s …

What drink do you like?

=> I like …

The second intervention was planned to teach vocabulary with visual aids in
three weeks with three topics including fruits, school facility and family. After each
session, there was a mini-test and at the end of the intervention, there was a posttest. It was planned as following:

INTERVENTION 2: WITH VISUAL AIDS
No

Topic

Content

Visual aids

Vocabulary: Apple, banana, carrot, cucumber, grapes, lemon.
1

Fruits

Sentences: What fruit do you like?


Family

Computer slides/

grand father

Photos/
flashcards

Sentences: Who is this? => He/ She is my …

5.2. Implementing the actions
The plan of the two interventions was put into practice. In the first
intervention, the researcher did not use visual aids in teaching students vocabulary.
All of the three sessions of the first intervention took place in the same steps as
following:
Steps

Skills

Opening
(5ms)
Main
activity

Listening

Teacher’s Activities